Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wanting to breed kingsnakes and I have never bred any snakes before. When using a hovabator do you still have to mix the vermiculite in a container and put the container in a hovabator or do you just put the eggs in there by themselves?
I am aware that 84 degrees is the majic temp. is it better to not use a incubator and just use a rubber maid shoe box with a few air holes in it and maybe a heat pad underneath it?

thanks for your time,
john

John,
I've personally never used an incubator for colubrid eggs. I high shelf in your reptile room or a warm room will do the trick. I've gotten about 10 clutches so far, just sitting on top of my racks.

Brandon Osborne

Cool, I thought you could use a rack systetm like that for incubating too. I probably will get a rack system when my cali kings are adults it would probably take up less space and be easier to maintain. I saw one priced for 199 bucks is that a good price? it will hold six adult snakes.

thanks,
john

If you have the time, just build a rack yourself. I built mine out of melamine (think particle board with a kind of plastic coating). Cut the sides and shelves, build from the bottom up using the containers you will be using for your critters as spacers for the shelf above. I heat mine with heat tape that 'snakes' (bad pun I know) it's way from one shelf to the next. If you're interested I will try to give you more info.

--Doug

I have a cuz that can help me build one. I am probably going to swicth to a rack when the snakes are adults. I saw one that has heat built into it on the net. it was like $199 is this a good price or is it better to build one?

thanks,
john

Brandon,
I forgot to ask how many holes in all do you drill in the rubber maid shoe boxes? like how many on the lid and the box part itself?

thanks,
john

as explained in my earlier post, I don't use holes in incubation boxes.

and when using boxes for housing, i don't use lids--the boxes sllide into racks.

for those boxes in the racks i put maybe a half dozen holes on each end of shoeboxes, and for larger boxes i put four or five holes on each of the four sides.

terry

john,

i'll let others address your incubator questions. I used them with birds years ago but haven't used them for my snakes. Haven't seen the need.

You can incubate your colubrid eggs in shoeboxes or tupperware. I think you'll soon decide to use airtight containers, not boxes with airholes, to keep out the fruitflies or dungflies or whatever the right name is for the little black creatures that seem to spring up magically in herp rooms.

I open the boxes every other day and use the lids to fan fresh air in. I'm incubating in my snake room, which is around 80 right now but will heat up to 81 or 82 as the summer progresses, despite my effort to air condition it. I'm sure 84 is fine too but it's not as comfortable for the people in it. The lower temps just take a little longer to hatch.

good luck!
terry
albino tricolors

I use the standard hovabators not the turbo model. You do need to use containers with vermiculite. There are other options as noted in the other replies. One of my friends uses one of his rubbermaid boxes in his rack. That works just as well. I prefer to have some sort of temperature control as opposed to just placing them on a shelf where the room temp can fluctuate. Kinked tails/spines are directly related to incubation temps and the use of a thermostat/rheostat to control the temps just makes sense. Just my opinion.

Everyone seems to have a different way of incubating eggs lol I never thought there would be so many ways to do it. I have not decided which way yet. I have never bred any kind of snakes either.

laterz,
john

Problems have been associated with too high of temps for too long, or too moist of a medium, but temperature fluctuations within a certain range do not hurt one bit. I've had Cal king eggs hatch when kept in a classroom where the daytime high was around 80-83 and the nightime lows hit the low 70s. No problems at all. I've done that repeatedly. I've also heard of eggs that reached 90 deg during the day but had a cooling off at night down into the 70s, and those eggs hatched fine.
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Mark

I agree with you there. I have not decided if i want to use an incubator or high shelf on a rack system with built in heat
and put the eggs in shoe box

its gonna be a while before i decide first they have to mature.
and i am not getting the babies until august.

n/p